Coöperative advertising.



G. A. ANNABLE.

- CO'O'PERATIVE ADVERTISING.-

APPLICATION FILED DEC.20, 1909.

1,204,331 Patented Nov. 7, 1916.

3 SHEETSSHE'ET 2- Fig- 3 class Class MULTK HNDEX EY number PAGELAr'chAeCLS. .165

alndu5tra|. 5-Lundscupe. c-Naval. dMcnme Architectural C(uving OrModeHnq (No. 39. See Carving, or- No.88,Modelin O Drnwl ng Maierial (No.50. See Drawfilq Mcien ul) Engineers No. 60. See Engineers) lv'-on (NO-78. See Iron) G-- 2.Acetylene. .339

' .ACalcium Carbide- .B-Machines.

Burners (No. 45c. See also Burners) Fixtures (No- 48 See 0159 Fixfiures)$.Analysis .95 O aSand. b-Waler-. c-Sewage Anc hars. Screw, Expansion,Wall, Posh (No. 76. See Hardware) Fig: 4--

L0ALITY INDEX.

N V0]; Page NEW YORK CITY. Address L A 3 ACETYLENE co., of N.Y., 38 ParkRcwmzAsqscwx A 35o. Allemuina Gas Inumimun Co., 105 Walker SLN-Y. 2 0 A-i. AMERICAN ASBESTOS (30., I36 LibBri ,N.Y4AseDssAB2 c 4K A- 890.DARBER, /-\.L., ASPHALT co., 90 West SLN..I.5ABCD69C Germonia RoofingCompany, 26 SuHivan 5f. N.Y. 5

PITTSBURGH. D fl gi AMERICAN BINDINGWAX co., Z4IBIeeker,Ph. BBC

Commercial Arc Lighi company, 80 Broudwayflh] Hardy & mm 410 E. 25:139AD sunlighk Gas Machine. Co., 49 Wurren,Ph. 64 0 ROCHESTER.

Vol. Page avrl WITNESSES:

G. A. ANNABLE.

COOPERATIVE ADVERTISING.

APPLICATION FIL'ED DEC. 20, 1909.

Patented Nov. 7 1916 s SHEETSSHEET a.

Name M A 339 Acetylene Company of N.Y.,

Ajax Oil & Grease Co.,

B 369 American Chain Laddar Co.., Church, Boston, 34C A"'B4- Archheciural Floater Cc, 210 Grand, Phflm, 8A 27 X A 7|. Auiomafic Button Co.,

=\ A 467. Baldwin Broihers C" 33 Bartow, T. 5., & sons, B 154 Basoett 8:Thompson, A Mi Brooks Bank Noie Co., B 29 Bush, Terry 81 m Carson IronWorks,

Fig. 5.

ALPHABETICAL INDEX. -N

Adfla'css f -fi 38 Park Row, N.Y. 2 AB4sC4aX 91 Mercer SLS'anEA AD 69 C27 Umon Sq., Lynn, BBC H8 Bway, Detroit, 8 B D 2.7 A 253 Madkon.Ch'maqo.

76 Broaol, Ph||a. 7A QD H4 Lberi Bosion. 34 C Dh 34 Pine. SQnFrQnQMAAsB'BC 27 Lincoln, Bklyn'. I48 191:

ACETYLENE, R gel-5S9.

vol. Page Nam A- 3 ACETYLENE co., of N.Y. A 350.A||emaine. Gas lllum.Co.,

O J. B. GolcL, 2| Barclay $1., N.Y. 2845c W-M. Trane Company, "3|Broadway, N.Y. QABC 1917C ASBESTOS, Page 645.

A- 645 American Asbcsios Co.,

Johns- Manvme (30., Keasbey 8- Mattison.

ASPHAJJ, Page 890- O A- 890. Darker, A. L., Asphalt Ca, We:

Fig. 6-

- THE KNBEX.

Address 38Pnrk Row, N.Y. 2m

lObWalker 5L, FLY. 1B69 C I35 Lfloerty 5L, N.Y. 4A 69Da5AB I00 WilliamSt, Philo. AMBCSBA :H

102 John st.,Ch cogo,4ABC|o|AC 1 512., N. sABCDesC rl 8 A l i a E .3.1.;

GEORGE A. ANNABLE, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS,'IO SWEETS CATALOGUE SERVICE INC, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OFDELAWARE.

COOPERATIVE ADVERTISING.

Specification of Letters Ifate nt.

Patented Nov. *2, 1916.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE A. ANNABLE, a citizen of the United States,residing at New York, in the county of Kings and State of New York, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Cooperative Advertising,of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to cooperative advertising.

It has been customary in the past for manufacturers,'merchants andothers to is-' sue individual catalogues setting forth their productsand specialties and to distribute the same in various ways. Thesecatalogues are naturally of varying shapes and sizes depending upon theparticular whim or notion of each individual responsible for the sameand also expensive to print and distribute. Any one desiring to keep intouch even with a single branch of industry must have an enormouscollection of miscellaneous catalogues which are likely to be lost.These are not only very bulky but are difficult to classify and it isdifficult to find a particular one when wanted. It is also customary fordealers and manufacturers to send out samples of their goods uponrequest and sometimes to have branch offices or show rooms in variousparts of the country. Some articles it is obviously impracticable tosend samples of to the vast majority of manufacturers and dealers and itis impossible to maintain any sort of display rooms or offices in anyconsiderable number of places.

It is my object to produce a means of cooperation between manufacturers,dealers and specialists throughout the country whereby their cataloguesmay be systematized and made more uniform and accessible and wherebyjoint or cooperative display of various articles may be made at aminimum of expense. only an advantage tothe manufacturer and dealer butalso a means of great convenience to the contracting and purchasingpublic.

The invention consists in a special form of catalogue and index ashereinafter more fully described. I have specifically set forth acatalogue of the building trades as illus-' trating an adaptation of myinvention. The catalogue and index will usually be compiled andpublished by a central agency issued to subscribers and some of thesewill be These features constitute not' advertisers and somenon-advertisers in the system.

Figure 1 illustrates a single volume embodying my invention. Fig. 2,illustrates an insertion or supplementary index and duplicate receiptfor new matter. Fig. 3, illustrates a fragment of key to the index ofthe classification of the body of the catalogue. Fig. 4, illustratesfragments of what I term a locality index. Fig. 5, illustrates fragmentsof the alphabetical index. Fig. 6, illustrates a fragment of what I terma trade index.

The main body of the catalogue consists of one or more volumes ofprinted matter con stituting the catalogues or advertisements of thedifferent advertisers in the system. These advertisements may all befull page catalogues or any fraction of a page for instance athree-quarter; one-half; or one-- quarter page. Any suitable type ofbinder preferably a loose leaf binder such as 1 with a lock may beemployed and having any number of posts preferably four spaced at theholes at the left of the sheets 2 of Fig. 2 are spaced. This enables meto conveniently bind in leaves of standard sizes. The drawing is merelyillustrative. The reference 3 simply indicates the index portion of thesystem and the reference 4 indicates the catalogue portion. Eachadvertiser in the system is preferably allotted a page number which ispermanent for that advertiser and in use on his catalogue sheet orsheets. From time to time however it is obvious that various advertiserswill wish to add to, or alter their original catalogues and new advertisers will join the system. At regular intervals therefore I mayfurnish what may be called insertion sheets 2 as shown in Fig. 2together with such new matter of old advertisers or of new advertisersas it may be desired to distribute. The insert sheet is made out induplicate with the name of the subscriberfor instance at the top asJones & Brown. On this insert is a list of all manufacturers, dealersand specialists whose new catalogues are supplied therewith togetherwith the page number and some abbreviated allusions to the business orarticle to which the new catalogue relates, for instancethe insert ofFig. 2 indicates that Billings & Co. of Cleveland, Ohio, have added anew catalogue or descriptive matter in relation to varnish which islocated in the catalogue system at page 842 of volume B. The distributeropens the binder l and inserts the new catalogue and removes old ones ifnecessary and fastens in the front of the volume one copy of theduplicate insert or supplementary index. signed as a receipt to indicatethat the subscriber has received the matter referred to thereon andturned over to the distributers.

The publisher of this catalogue system may maintain at different pointsdisplay rooms where articles may be placed on exhibition for the variousadvertisers. The insert above described indicates notonly his volume andpage number but whether or not the advertiser has an exhibition and atwhich one of the display rooms it is located for instance-insert of Fig.2 indicates that Billings & Co. have exhibitions at the associationdisplay rooms at New York and Philadelphia and that Howard & Morse, havean exhibition at'all of the association display rooms. These inserts maybe called a supplementary index as it is always intended to thus bringthe index to the catalogue down to date. This supplementary index alsoserves to call the attention of the subscriber to all newniatter in thecatalogues and to the exhibitions which the advertisers have hadinstalled, The binder or binders are preferably kept locked to preventtampering by unauthorized persons and the possible loss ordisarrangement of the cataloguesor index.

In order to facilitate finding the catalogues of the differentspecialists, manufacturers or dealers in different lines in thedifferent 10- calities I provide three indices known as the localityindex, the alphabetical index and the trade index. Wherever theadvertisers name appears in these indices complete or abbreviatedinformation is set forth as to the advertiser, the locality, specialline of business and the page in the catalogue at which that advertiserscatalogue will be found. This enables me to print all three indicesfromthe same set of type by simple redistribution. Each of the principalclasses of occupations or products is given a class number which is.used throughout the alphabetical, the locality and the trade index. For

instance the reference letter G in Fig. 3 indicates class 2, acetylene.In order to facilitate references. to the different classes I employ themulti index key. For convenience this should be arranged alphabeticallyor nearly so. The number appearing at the left of the name of each classis the number of the class. Some of the classes are divided intosub-classes for instance under class 2 acetylene there is a subclass Acalcium carbid meaning the subscriber handles calcium carbid. In theindices, therefore, each acetylene dealer would have near h1s name andaddress a numeral 2 The other copy is and if he .made a specialty forinstance of calcium carbid the letter A would follow the numeral 2. Ialso prefer to employ a rather full system ofcross indexing so thatanalogous lines may more easily be followed out. If a manufacturer ordealer handles a number of articles then several class. numbers i mayfollow his name. Where the manufacturer makes a specialty of someparticular brand or article I- employ a sub-index character after thename such as a a or A A at H in Fig. 6 or at K in Fig. i to indicate it.If a person then wishes to find the name of a party in a given town whohandles a certain brand he merely runs through the locality index forthat town till he finds the index character corresponding to. thatbrand.

To find from the locality index the name or names of dealers in aparticular article the classification number of that article is firstascertained from the key and then the classification column at the rightof the locality index is examined for that classification lVhere theadvertiser also has on exhibi tion some, of his products at one ormoreof the assoclation display roomsth at fact is lndlcated under thepage number of the advertisers name and this same number will 7 be foundafiixed to the ElClV61t1SeI' S exhlbi- I tion in the display room. Thissame page number may be used onthe letter-heads, bill-heads or circularsof the advertisers together with some insignia or stamp indicating thatthe advertiseris associated with the cooperative catalogue plan orassociation. In this way a person receiving 'any correspondence from amanufacturer or dealer who isan advertiser in the catalogue mayimmediately look up the catalogue and exhibit of any of the advertisersat once at the association display rooms or. he may look up thecatalogue in his own book if he.

is a subscriber to the cooperative catalogue system. In this way eachadvertiseradds to the general public interest in the miscellaneousproducts and occupations of the other cooperativeadvertisers.

The main contents of the catalogue may umes each of which is properlypaged. The materlal of course maybe arranged either 'will know the factat once and if he desires be distributed throughout one or more vol-Q bylocality of the advertisers or alphabetically according to the names ofthe advertisers or grouped according to the trades, occupations orproducts of the advertisers. This system not only insures a widedistribution of catalogues but reduces the cost to the individualadvertisers. It is also a great convenience to the ordinary buyer anduser by keeping in an orderly uniform and compact manner what hasheretofore been awkward,inaccessible and cumbersome. The catalogues asdelivered to the subscriber will thus be seen to be already properlyclassified, indexed and filed and any name, material or address isreadily accessible.

If it were necessary to find the catalogues of manufacturers ofacetylene supplies it would merely be necessary to examine themultidndex key (see Fig. 3) which would show at G that class 2,acetylene, would be found at page 339 and following. On the other handif it were desired to find some particular dealer in acetylene suppliesbut the name of the dealer was however not definitely known, the tradeindex would be examined (see Fig. 6) where the mind would be refreshedby the alphabetical list of dealers. For instance at J-Acetylene Co. ofN. Y. This would indicate that their catalogue would be found in vol. A,page 339, their class being 2 and sub-class A and B. This also indicatesthat they dealt in articles in class 45, sub-class C, and class as,subclass X. The same information would be obtained from the localityindex Fig. 4 at L and in the alphabetical index, Fig. 5, at M. Thus fullinformation can be obtained from the locality index or the trade indexor the alphabetical index. The meaning of the characters indicated bythe reference letter N following the name and address of the dealer forinstance, in Figs. 4., and 6 is readily ascertained from the multi-indexkey. The numbers being the class numbers and the letters being thesubclass indicators or the brands as indicated by the underscoring at Kin Fig. 4 and II .in Fig. 6.

TV hat I claim is:

1. Cooperative advertising means com prising individual catalogues ofdifferent advertisers of different specialties or products uniform insize and bound together and an index thereto arranged in four columnscontaining respectively page references, names of the advertisers,locations of the advertisers and classifications thereof.

Cooperative advertising means comprising individual catalogues ofdifferent advertisers of different specialties or products uniform insize and bound together, three separate indices thereto, one index beingarranged according to the names of the advertisers, the second indexbeing arranged according to the business or trade of the advertisers andthe third index being arranged according to the locality of theadvertisers and each index having four columns containing respectivelypage references, names of the advertisers, locations of the advertisersand classifications thereof.

3. Means for cooperative advertising comprising, a loose leaf set ofuniform advertisements of different advertisers in different localities,an index therefor arranged according to names, an index arrangedaccording to classification, an index arranged according to differentlocalities, and a lock binder for securing the same together.

ff. Means for cooperative advertising comprising, a loose leaf set ofadvertisements of different advertisers of different classes indifferent localities, one or more indices therefor giving the names,classes and locations and containing references to the location ofdisplays of the advertised classes and a binder securing the sametogether.

5. Means for cooperative advertising comprising, a loose leaf set ofadvertisements of different advertisers of different classes in difierent localities, one or more indices therefor and a supplementary indexof new matter containing references to the location of displays of theadvertised classes and means binding the same together.

6. A cooperative catalogue and index comprising the combination ofcatalogue data sheets of different subscribers classed in groupsaccording to trades, the groups bearing distinctive trade indexcharacters and arranged consecutively and the sheets of each groupbearing consecutive individual page designating numbers, the numbers ofeach group being independent of the preceding and following groups sothat any group may be indefinitely extended, a classified trade indexapplying to each group, the names of catalogue subscribers beingarranged alphabetically in said index under each group and the said pagedesignating characters being displayed adjacent said names and a keyindex showing the groups of the trades arranged alphabetically and withsaid group index characters adjacent thereto and means binding saidparts together in i one or more volumes.

7. A cooperative catalogue and index com prising the combination ofcatalogue data sheets of different subscribers classed in each group andthe said'page designating characters being displayed adjacent said namesand a key index showing the groups of the trades arranged alphabeticallyand with said'group index characters adjacent thereto and asupplementary index of new matter containing names of subscriberstogether With the corresponding trade index characters and pages andmeans binding said parts together in one or more volumes.

8. The combination with loose leaf advertisements of advertisers ofdifferent prodthe page number, locality and trade classification ot therespective advertlsers, a trade index arranged according to trades andbearing information of the trade classification page, name and locationof the advertisers, a locality index arranged accordingto. the differentlocalities of the advertisers and providing information of the localitypage, name and trade classification of the advertisers, and a bindersecuring the Whole together.

GEORGE A. ANNABLE \Vitnesses Rom. S. Annrx, E. BRADFORD.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

